Sprint has halted shipping new LG LX260 Rumor units to stores. The LG Rumor has a known issue where certain sets of key presses during startup can trigger a complete erasure of the phone’s firmware.

Sprint has isolated the issue to a specific debugging menu, intended for LG engineers to work on the device during development. Unfortunately, the menu is triggered by accessing the main menu, and/or dialing phone numbers. Sprint has not disclosed the specific code, to prevent abuse.

Clarification: The trigger is timed to function only at start up. To work around the issue, we suggest not pressing any buttons on the phone for at least 30 seconds after it has fully powered on.

The phone, once triggered, cannot be restored except at the factory. The debugging code even erases the portions of the firmware that would allow a Sprint Store to recover the device (requiring what is known in the industry as a JTAG restore, which can only be done at the LG factory or in a lab setting).

LG is working to fix the issue, by creating an updated firmware that removes the code from being accessible. Once that firmware is issued and approved, existing customers will be able to download the update over-the-air at no charge. Sprint intends to resume shipments of the LX260 Rumor to stores once devices can ship with the forthcoming update already installed.

This is the second phone in a row to need shipments halted from LG on Sprint. The LG LX160 had hardware-level issues preventing the speakerphone and caller ID display from working properly. Sprint halted shipments of the LX160 to stores until the issue could be resolved, and replaced phones for free, provided the Sprint Store had been properly informed of the silent recall.

Christopher Price is the Founding Editor of PhoneNews.com. Today, he leads the team building Console, Inc. - a new kind of Android™ device. He still likes to pontificate... a lot. You can visit his personal blog at ChristopherPrice.net.

360 responses to “Not a Rumor, the LG Rumor has Issues”

I boughtthis LG rumor in Feb 2010 OMG so many problems finally got sprintto mail me a replacement phone ( same one) and its only been 10 days since I got it and all ofa sudden I am having issues with data connection says my e mail service needs to be confirmed WHAT??? I have data on my plan!!!!! Network timeouts Error codes ETC……..unable to connect to network same issues as last phone ……..I cannot wait until sprint opens up this morning!! It shuts off all the time for no reason…….THEY NEVER FIXED THE ISSUES WITH THESE LG RUMORS!!!!

my phone keep turning off i just got it i charged it now its only working in the charger then when i take it off it works for one minite thenshuts off thats so point less i hate this phone i wanna throw it

This is by far the shittiest phone to EVER exist. I had the unfortunate pleasure of owning this phone for two years, and it has EVERYTHING wrong with it that you can imagine!!
First off – it shuts itself off randomly sometimes when I’m texting.
Secondly – even if a person is listed in my contacts, when said person phones me, they show up as “unknown caller.”
Thirdly – I was completely unable to download ANYTHING onto it. Especially ringtones. It wouldn’t even work when I loaded music in with a micro SD card!
Fourthly – I was unable to send video messages to anyone without getting a “network error.”

It’s the worst phone EVER. I’m from Canada, and for some reason they didn’t recall it from our stores like they did in the USA. I’m glad I finally got a chance to switch to a Blackberry curve – and the funny thing is when I did switch, the girl at the kiosk selling me the blackberry says she REFUSES to sell LG rumors to ANYONE. I can see why.

I have a rumor Lg phone, it seems like there are alot of people out here have similar problems, my phone was wonderful at first you could touch the screen and it would work just fine, it was a happy little phone, I have never drop the phone or anything like that I only touch the screen but, now you have to tap it and it take forever to work missed calls alot, can’t get the phone to answere when touching key pad same like it stuck. you can see a little lite on the pad itself but nothing. Take out the battery and put back in nothing, Then you might get luckey it will work again. Have had the phone 6 months. I am very unhappy, Had a nextel/sprint phone for 4 years no problem ever. now the the lg big problem. Going to get rid of this phone sooooooooooooooooooon. Michele

ok my phone does the same thing! I got this in may it hasnt even been a year and it has soo many problems, my buttons arent working properly i push the back button and it ends up dialing 369 and will start calling it, but now i cant push one button, when i push a button, it shuts off but when i press the power off button it wont shut off, like WTH??!!

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